Chapter 29: Magical word

14:44 PM (Japan Time), Wednesday June the 10th…

"… I say lo and behold! Video Man: I'll be back!"

"Hey there! Vintage Man came out?"

"HUH? Oh! Madame Tozukana! What might I do for thou?"

"That sounds old-fashioned but whatever. Where's Bandana Man at, anyway?"

"Kage? Dunno. Isn't here... He usually shows up past 6:00 PM! Wait! Today's a Wednesday so he won't come to begin with."

"Sheesh! Another woman's involved, then…"

"Ahem, ahem. Do you have a problem with a fellow department member, Mademoiselle Tozukana?"

"Yikes! Boss!?"

"See? That's what happens when you say nonsense!"

Video Man had been joking inside of a storage room the door of which was ajar; Tozukana popped her head into the room to talk with him; she began to get annoyed when a familiar voice rang out behind her and Lily rolled her eyes; Noir had come out of his office and walked over to them while keeping his arms aiming for the ground.

"No, no, Danna…" She quickly replied.

"You'd be better off not questioning his honor, Mademoiselle Tozukana Joanne… Miquel – kun is not 15 yet and wouldn't dream of doing something so… undignified." He icily warned.

"G-gotcha, Danna…"

"I have warned you! Miquel – kun has a dignity and he'll do what it takes to protect it from hostile attacks. Be careful not to walk into thin ice."

"S-sure… I'll be… careful…!"

"See?" Lily annoyingly asked.

"Oh. Leave me in peace." She snapped.

"Do you need to dig out some skeletons in some closet, Srs. & Senhoras?"

"We do the job presto."

Agoras and Victor caught up with them; both appealed as amused.

"Thank you, gentlemen, but there is no need to."

"Sir? President Hades would like to meet with you, sir." Legato announced as he caught up with the group.

"Excellent. I'll be going, then. À bientôt."

Noir and Legato headed away as Tozukana set her glare on Agoras; he didn't move an inch and made a courteous bow while stepping out of the way; Tozukana briskly walked past him and down the corridor while agitating her fingers into empty air.

"I need to strangle someone~!" She hissed.

"Strangle the nothingness." Lily challenged.

"Something material!"

"That won't do, Joanne – chan. We're not here for that." Lily was unimpressed.

"I'd like to beat down the bitch!"

"You can't! Infighting of any kind is against the rules if it goes beyond mere words! Even verbal fights have limits set to them. Rules are there to ensure the co-existence of all us and ensure we behave in a civilized and educated manner."

"Damn it! Grah! I'm gonna go VR – sniping to vent off this bad mood once and for all…! Hey! Martha!"

"Good morning, Tozukana – san. I came to pick some stuff I forget and I'm on a hurry so you'll have to excuse me… I'm on a rush!"

"Wait a second, cha."

"Yes? What's the matter?"

"Between women! Do cha think that the bitch is using Zarashe to screw herself down there or what?"

"HUH? Oh no! I don't think Ikada – san needs that. She has her reputation! Not at all women are interested in you-know-what, you know?"

Tozukana saw Suzuki opening her room's door, and stopped her before she could step in; she made a straight to the point question and she was dumbfounded at it.

"Sheesh! Come on, Operator! You've played deaf for the last 5 minutes or WHAT?" Lily exasperatedly asked.

"I'd rather think so." Akemi muttered.

"Oh my. Someone mentioned me?"

"Bertha! Cha…!"

"Hold back, Joanne – chan. Behave like a civilized person!"

"This doesn't look good! I better scram."

"Y-yeah. Let's scram."

Suzuki grabbed a book and a case she'd left atop the desk and then left the scene; Tozukana was about to jump towards Ikada as she stood in the middle of the corridor having her arms crossed; Lily was actually holding her by passing her arms beneath Tozukana's shoulders and pulling her back; Sandra assumed a self-defense pose as if to warn she would strike down anyone who came closer.

"What is the source of such a scandal?" An annoyed voice asked.

The secretary showed up from inside of a room; although her hat did hide most of the face she was obviously annoyed; Tozukana ignored her and was trying to attack Ikada while Lily kept on holding her back.

"Tozukana Joanne! What is this behavior?"

"None of cha business! Bitch! That bitch is my prey!"

"… What did you just say?"

"She didn't intend to, ma'am, she just is being paranoid… She didn't score high at the VR so she's trying to vent her anger on others… I'll take her to her room to lie down, ma'am…!" Lily quickly replied.

"You better do so. Or there will be consequences."

"R-roger, ma'am. Alright! Stop acting like a feral thing! Let's go to your room and cool down! Here! Come!"

Lily began to drag Tozukana away despite her struggle; the secretary looked on, and then turned to glare at Ikada and Sandra; both lost their attitude and the air turned cold, even.

"Ikada Bertha! You did this on purpose!"

"Yes, ma'am… I knew Lily would hold her back, so…" Ikada gulped.

"Do not we have rules forbidding provocation and in-fighting? Have you forgotten them? What is the answer?"

"W-we haven't forgotten them, we just got smug and… It shall not happen twice, ma'am." Sandra quickly bowed.

"Do not forget that when President Hades is occupied I am in charge! Legato is also in charge if Vice President Noir is occupied! Slur – sama would not like to see such behavior. Do not disappoint others."

"R-roger, ma'am… Understood…"

"Or do you want those plebeians out there to make fun of us saying we fight each other and that we will collapse sooner or later? Do you want the entire hard job we have done insofar collapse because of your rivalry and your attitude?"

She took a step forward and brandished her right fist; both stepped back, nervous, but she simply loomed over them.

"N-no, ma'am! Certainly not, ma'am!" Both replied.

"President Hades is a wise person! However, he sometimes is not strict enough when it comes to punishing members' irregular behaviors! I shall not doubt in enforcing martial law if necessary! I could establish timetables so that you do not meet each other in the corridors so often. Am I clear enough? Did you UNDERSTAND?" She warned next.

"We do, ma'am, we do!"

"Hmpf! I shall be keeping eyes on ALL OF YOU!"

She stepped into her own room again and slammed the door shut as if to prove there was no kidding at anything when she was around.

"Close, too close…! Guess I need to change my behavior or we will get into one Hell of a mess." Ikada muttered.

"Yeah… I'd say we go out for a walk! Today's a sunny day and we could go to the shopping mall to see what the latest fashions are..."

Sandra wiped off some sweat that had formed on her helmet's forehead with a handkerchief; Ikada did the same.

"Good idea… Wan is on a field mission anyway and won't be back before the evening. And I'm sure Ms. Secretary will appreciate if we stay away for some hours before Joanne calms down."

"Maybe we should try to reach a truce?"

"I see no other way around. I hope that President Hades could contribute to establishing it. He will be annoyed, obviously enough. We started a fuss during an important meeting, after all…"

They left behind the building and headed over to a space between containers where their bike was parked; Ikada removed the anti-theft chain and opened the built-in compartment to take out the helmets, which both of them put on; Sandra sat behind her and grabbed Ikada's waist as she turned on the bike and drove away.

"The feeling of the wind is exhilarating, truly! Anyway! To the mall!"

"Yeah. Let's go to the bookstore and buy some books, too!"

19:19 PM (Japan Time), Saturday June the 22nd…

"… Alright. I get a field mission in a while… Checking for fake Apple merchandise sold to tourists by illegal street vendors… They have the frame and all. However, they're empty on the inside! By the time that they realize it, the vendors have vanished into thin air… It'd seem a citizen has spotted them coming and going from this ship. Let's check it out."

"Roger, sir. IR scanning shows no heat signatures onboard! I doubt them having access to IR-shielding technology."

Enzan had come to the docks, where a lone boat had been docked at; fog was coming in from the harbor but he ignored it and climbed onboard the boat, and used a set of lock-picking tools to open the door; he descended to the sleeping quarters for four persons and the far wall was decorated with a large and smooth black slab of what seemed to be plastic; it was about two meters tall and thirty centimeters thick.

Odd decoration… Let's look around…

He opened some drawers and found the stuff; he closed them again and then headed into a small cargo bay packed with pizza boxes and other fast food items; two crates having more fakes inside of them were there too.

"Let's ring Superintendent Oda… No mistake! This is their hideout. We should investigate the boat's owner…"

"Roger, sir. Contacting… Line open, sir."

"Ijuuin – kun. How is it like?"

"As we predicted, this is the boat in question. The Gorgonzola… Could we look it up and try to organize a surprise raid? We've already got the prosecutor's permit to arrest them, right?"

"Indeed. Hold on a min: I'll try to contact Meijin… He's gone to buy instant ramen at the 7-Eleven…"

"Alright. I'll be waiting on the outside…"

"Good. Keep the line open!"

Enzan came out of the boat and paced around the dock; he heard footsteps walking in his direction but since the zone was covered in fog, he couldn't see anything; two red "eyes" glowed from within the fog as a figure was drawn inside of it, and Enzan gasped.

"Bon soir, cher ami."

"Noir!"

"Chat Noir."

"What the heck are you doing here?"

"What if I told you I'm the informer?"

"You leaked the boat's location in purpose? Those guys must've been an eyesore for Golden Star, then." He guessed.

"Not really. It was an excuse to summon you here."

"Will you take out that stupid outfit already?"

"No. It makes me become one with the night."

"That's some silly anime rip-off motto. So! Purgatory is one of these buildings, then? A red herring to divert our attention?"

Enzan signaled the row of warehouses behind him using the right hand's index finger.

"Ijuuin – kun? What's going on?" Oda asked.

"Noir, sir. He's here. Again."

"What!"

"You did a noble act. Superintendent Oda."

"How could you know that?" Oda questioned.

"Truth to be told… Slur – sama was interested in the affair. She told us about it. How she found out, she wouldn't say."

"Must've found a copy of the report…" Oda guessed.

"I let out that hint via Hikawa – kun because I wanted you to be conscious that there were such fools in the Net Police's Cyber CID again! We've managed to ID the fools of this occasion. You should've gotten the list plus a copy to Chief Sorodo."

"How did you get that information to begin with? I thought I was keeping a close eye on fishy behavior, surprised this slipped me by!"

"Zero got it for us. We gave it some tags to limit the search criteria and by using its own search engine it found the info, decoded it and compared it with the profiles we'd inputted."

"Zero… You've been mentioning it several times already! Is that some new software? Or some type of Net Navi?" Enzan questioned.

"Close, close. A super-computer… A new-gen super-computer like the NSA's TRANSLTR… The ultimate code-breaking machine… We got inspired by it and the NSA's Cryptography Department…"

"So you're mirroring Ameroupe governmental agencies… That's how you got your hands in information like this? By the way… Is that weird black slab your handiwork?"

"Yeah. I put it there, thinking it would surprise you… That aside… At first, the Navis themselves searched for the info. We also used public search engines. When Zero runs at 100%, then it'll be able to catch data with certain keywords… Like Ameroupe intelligence agencies do to locate suspects or schemes…"

"Isn't Kage around here?"

"He's waiting in Purgatory."

"Waiting for you?"

"And you too, Ijuuin!"

"For me? He wants to challenge me to a Net Battle?"

"No. Today is the D – Day."

"The D – Day! What's going to happen?" Enzan gasped.

"Calm down. By "D – Day" I mean this is a day we'd been waiting for! Ever since half a year ago! A key day! But I won't say anything else or I'd be spoiling it…"

"What. You're finally gonna fight me for real?"

"Sadly enough… Not today. However, it won't take much longer. Andy and Legato are training hard."

"Hmpf! I'm not slacking training, either! And I proved that your mighty Slur is not invincible!"

"Did we ever claim that, though?" Noir sneered.

"Damn. Got me there." Enzan growled.

"When will this farce end?" Blues growled.

"Don't worry. It won't take much longer."

"It better not! Say! What have you done to Meijin?"

"Nothing at all! Maybe he just happened to find a long queue or the cashier broke down or the part-time staff is having complications…"

"Did someone mention me?" Meijin voice rang out next to Oda.

"Welcome back. Did something happen?"

"Not really? Just that the part-time worker was having trouble solving an issue with the cashier… Is something the matter?"

"See? I told you." Noir sighed, annoyed.

"What's going on?" Meijin asked.

"I sent Ijuuin – kun on a mission. But it turns out it was a tip-off by Noir of Golden Star because he wanted to tease us!"

"I see. And since I was taking so long you thought I'd run into trouble?"

"Beware, Monsieur Meijin… The Meijin Match is coming up!"

"Oh come on! I'm not a shogi meijin! Just a Net Battles nerd!"

"The node that turned into the nerd?" He laughed.

"What the… Is that a Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty reference? Raiden mishearing "node" as "nerd"…"

"Huff! Whatever! Memes aside! How am I supposed to get to Purgatory, wherever or whatever it is to begin with?"

"Like the Pink Panther got to Chilly WaWa…"

"Huh? Who's the Pink Panther?"

"Your best hound, cher ami." He laughed.

"Is that addressed to me or Superintendent Oda?"

"I'd rather say Monsieur Oda is the intended receiver of this humble and praising message." He made a courteous bow.

"But I really don't know anyone named "Pink Panther" or what or where "Chilly WaWa" is at! Shouldn't this question's recipient be Meijin? He may know about those!" Oda hesitantly replied.

"Try Goggle, mon ami."

"… What in the…? Is this a bad taste joke? The "Pink Panther" is a cartoon character for children! It has its own set of games and such!"

"Pink Panther? Chilly WaWa? Which game was it again…?"

"I don't have a weird zapping gun to warp people away. Instead I've got a stuffed tube that can warp people around!"

"Stuffed tube that…? Oh shit!"

"I was stalling for time until it finished booting up, see! That's why I choose a foggy night, too! So that you couldn't see it!"

The sound of a "Dimensional Converted" booting rang out and Enzan was warped out of the area before he could react; Noir laughed as he walked over to the machine, a few meters behind where Enzan had been.

"Welcome to the party, Ijuuin… Finally… The climax is upon us!"